A “cozy” game is generally a slice-of-life story focused on repetitive domestic tasks. Most common format is life sim or visual novel. There’s little to no combat, generally low stakes, and any serious subject, if approached at all, will be surface level, so players can generally expect not to get caught off guard by heavy subjects.
There is rarely a win condition and rewards for min-maxing are minimal. The overall artistic intention is relaxation and the fantasy of a pleasant day to day life in which the product of ones labor is directly visible, all your problems are practical and have direct solutions, and you are a recognized and valued member of a community.
Often includes unexamined colonialist/authoritarian worldviews that should clash with their apparent ideology but the genre’s emphasis on avoiding anything heavy or potentially upsetting discourages examining this.
Though frequently considered to have a low difficulty curve, they’re capable of being quite challenging— however the challenge rarely requires fast reflexes, favoring strategy, resource management, and stat building, the biggest challenges are often optional rather than mandatory to complete the game’s main storyline, and failure is generally not punished in any significant way. This creates a lower barrier of entry to inexperienced players, and makes them overall more forgiving, as causing frustration would go against the genre’s mandate of peace and relaxation. Cozy games are easier in the sense that solving a puzzle is easier if you aren’t expecting someone to kick you in the nuts if you don’t finish fast enough.
However, its defining feature is the “cozy” aesthetic— a very specific visual style that mixes cottage-core, whimsical twee, and elements of Scandinavian design.
This aesthetic’s general “pumpkin spice latte” vibes and association with perceived feminine domesticity make it generally reviled by hard core gamers whose only socially accepted form of emotional release is screaming at other players over teamspeak— and is simultaneously uncritically idealized for those same features by tumblr/insta girlies who are about to fall down the tradwife pipeline.
It’s possible to apply the cozy visual aesthetic to a non-cozy game, but you cannot have a cozy game without it. If you can’t find official art of the main character unironically sitting in a coffee shop drinking tea on an autumn morning, staring out the window with a general air of wistful contentment, it’s probably not a cozy game.
Examples include Stardew Valley and its predecessor Harvest Moon, Assemble With Care, and Coffee Talk.
Frequently misidentified non-examples include: Journey, Firewatch, Planet Zoo, Slime Rancher, Phoenix Wright, and Powerwash Simulator (really guys?? Powerwash Simulator?????)
Casual game: Broad category of low stakes games with low barrier of entry, can include any genre or visual style. (Cookie Run, The Sims, Oxenfree, most visual novels)
Walking simulator: Not a genre, rather a gameplay format in which game mechanics are minimal and the gameplay primarily consists of moving through narrative set pieces. Can be any genre or visual style. (Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Gone Home)
Simulation Game: a genre of game which includes minimal story or mechanics and instead focuses on simulating a real world experience as accurately as possible. (Train sims, plane sims, house flipper)
Literally just an indie game with no combat: any number of games that have nothing in common with casual or cozy games except you don’t kill anyone come on guys (Journey, Blue Prince, Talos Principle, Gris, Spiritfarer, Subnautica)
Cozy game: Low stakes, slice of life, whimsical “cozy” aesthetic, low frustration gameplay.
Cozy games are casual games, but not all casual games are cozy. Walking sims are casual games and cozy games can be walking sims, but neither is mutually exclusive. Simulation games are entirely their own thing. None of these is inherently superior or without sin. Drink a PSL while playing Doom Eternal and learn to love again.
2087
stormborns
yousharknotpass
